[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 10 (Tuesday, January 25, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S80-S81]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  HONORING DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

  Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, on Monday, January 17, our Nation once 
again celebrated the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as a 
national holiday. Signed into law in 1983, the bill to make Dr. King's 
birthday a legal public holiday was the result of a 15-year legislative 
effort.
  Although I was not a Member of the Congress at the time, I remember 
well the national debate and eventually the overwhelming support this 
legislation engendered. For the Senate pages on the floor today, for 
their entire lifetimes, Dr. King's birthday has been a Federal holiday. 
But they and all young Americans should know the passage of that law 
was not certain and not without controversy at the time.
  I was the speaker of the Maryland house of delegates in the 1980s 
when the State of Maryland took up legislation to make Dr. King's 
birthday a State holiday, and we were one of several States that passed 
State laws to make Dr. King's birthday a holiday. As the federalism 
system works, as more States got engaged in this issue, the momentum at 
the national level became very apparent. And for the importance of this 
day and its message to Americans, the Congress finally enacted 
legislation in 1983.
  This holiday, which has appropriately come to be known as a day of 
service, would not have happened without the leadership of former 
Senator Charles Mathias of Maryland. I am very proud of the work 
Senator Mathias did on this issue and so many issues that were 
important to the opportunities for all Americans. I also want to 
acknowledge the work of former Representative Katie Hall of Indiana. 
They were the authors of the 1983 legislation. This holiday also would 
not have happened without the work of Representatives John Lewis and 
John Conyers, who have dedicated their lives to social justice. Also, I 
might add, without the work of our former colleague, Senator Ted 
Kennedy, this bill would never have become law. I congratulate all of 
them for their work.
  Serving in the Senate today are colleagues whom I would also like to 
thank for their efforts to enact this legislation, the 1983 King 
holiday bill. Six of the thirty-four sponsors are still in the Senate 
today, including Senator Baucus, Senator Bingaman, Senator Inouye, 
Senator Lautenberg, Senator Levin, and Senator Lugar, as well as the 
president of the Senate, Vice President Joe Biden. Moreover, five 
Senators who were Members of the House of Representatives at the time 
were original cosponsors of the companion bill, H.R. 3706, which became 
law. They are Majority Leader Reid, Senators Akaka, Boxer, Mikulski, 
and Schumer. I thank them all for their leadership and vision in the 
1980s as to the importance of making this holiday a remembrance to Dr. 
Martin Luther King.
  Twenty years before its enactment, in August of 1963 on the steps of 
the Lincoln Memorial, Dr. King delivered what is his most well-known 
speech, in which he called for racial equality and social justice for 
all Americans.
  In honor of Dr. King's birthday, I ask unanimous consent that the 
text of that speech be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                           ``I Have a Dream''

                    (By Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)

       ``I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in 
     history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the 
     history of our nation.
       ``Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic 
     shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. 
     This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to 
     millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of 
     withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the 
     long night of their captivity.
       ``But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. 
     One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly 
     crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of 
     discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a 
     lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of 
     material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is 
     still languished in the corners of American society and finds 
     himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here 
     today to dramatize a shameful condition.
       ``In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a 
     check. When the architects of our republic wrote the 
     magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of 
     Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which 
     every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that 
     all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be 
     guaranteed the `unalienable Rights' of `Life, Liberty and the 
     pursuit of Happiness.' It is obvious today that America has 
     defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of 
     color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred 
     obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a 
     check which has come back marked `insufficient funds.'
       ``But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is 
     bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient 
     funds in the great

[[Page S81]]

     vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to 
     cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the 
     riches of freedom and the security of justice.
       ``We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America 
     of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in 
     the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug 
     of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of 
     democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate 
     valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. 
     Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of 
     racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the 
     time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
       ``It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency 
     of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's 
     legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an 
     invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-
     three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that 
     the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content 
     will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business 
     as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in 
     America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. 
     The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the 
     foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice 
     emerges.
       ``But there is something that I must say to my people, who 
     stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of 
     justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we 
     must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to 
     satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of 
     bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle 
     on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not 
     allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical 
     violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic 
     heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
       ``The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro 
     community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, 
     for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their 
     presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny 
     is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize 
     that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
       ``We cannot walk alone.
       ``And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall 
     always march ahead.
       ``We cannot turn back.
       ``There are those who are asking the devotees of civil 
     rights, `When will you be satisfied?' We can never be 
     satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the 
     unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be 
     satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of 
     travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and 
     the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as 
     the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a 
     larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children 
     are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity 
     by signs stating: `For Whites Only.' We cannot be satisfied 
     as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in 
     New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, 
     we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until 
     `justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a 
     mighty stream.'
       ``I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of 
     great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh 
     from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas 
     where your quest--quest for freedom left you battered by the 
     storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police 
     brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. 
     Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is 
     redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go 
     back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to 
     Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern 
     cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be 
     changed.
       ``Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you 
     today, my friends.
       ``And so even though we face the difficulties of today and 
     tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted 
     in the American dream.
       ``I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and 
     live out the true meaning of its creed: `We hold these truths 
     to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'
       ``I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, 
     the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners 
     will be able to sit down together at the table of 
     brotherhood.
       ``I have a dream that one day even the state of 
     Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, 
     sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed 
     into an oasis of freedom and justice.
       ``I have a dream that my four little children will one day 
     live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color 
     of their skin but by the content of their character.
       ``I have a dream today!
       ``I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its 
     vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping 
     with the words of `interposition' and `nullification'--one 
     day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls 
     will be able to join hands with little white boys and white 
     girls as sisters and brothers.
       ``I have a dream today!
       ``I have a dream that one day every valley shall be 
     exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the 
     rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will 
     be made straight; `and the glory of the Lord shall be 
     revealed and all flesh shall see it together.'
       ``This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to 
     the South with.
       ``With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the 
     mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will 
     be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into 
     a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will 
     be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle 
     together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom 
     together, knowing that we will be free one day.
       ``And this will be the day--this will be the day when all 
     of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:
       `` `My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee 
     I sing.
       `` `Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's 
     pride,
       `` `From every mountainside, let freedom ring!'
       ``And if America is to be a great nation, this must become 
     true.
       ``And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of 
     New Hampshire.
       ``Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
       ``Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of 
     Pennsylvania.
       ``Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of 
     Colorado.
       ``Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of 
     California.
       ``But not only that:
       ``Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
       ``Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
       ``Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of 
     Mississippi.
       ``From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
       ``And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when 
     we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from 
     every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that 
     day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews 
     and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join 
     hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
       `` `Free at last! Free at last!
       `` `Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!' ''

  Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I yield the floor and suggest the 
absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CORKER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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